After about three hours of testimony and arguments, Panola County Circuit Judge Gerald Chatham ruled the trial in the December 2014 burning death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers will continue as scheduled.

What was originally scheduled as a status hearing became much more dramatic Monday in Chatham's courtroom as Quinton Tellis, accused in Chambers' death, sat quietly next to his attorneys waiting on the judge to rule on three motions his attorneys had filed.

The hearing became less about Tellis and more about the man prosecuting him.

The motions filed against District Attorney John Champion by Tellis' defense attorneys Darla Palmer and Alton Peterson asked that the DA's office be recused and sanctioned. The defense alleges Champion attempted to coerce an inmate into testifying against Tellis. The defense also asked for a continuance in the scheduled Sept. 24 retrial.

Chatham ruled against the defense so the case will go on as planned on Sept. 24.

Chambers was found on Herron Road in the Panola County town of Courtland a little after 8 p.m. Dec. 6, 2014, walking away from her burning vehicle with burns over 98 percent of her body. In the small community of barely 500, almost all the first responders on the scene knew her and her family.

She was flown to a Memphis hospital, where she died just hours later. Coroner Gracie Gulledge said the cause of the young woman's death was thermal injury.

On Feb. 23, 2016, authorities identified a suspect. They announced Tellis had been indicted that month on capital murder charges by a special grand jury in Panola County. He went to trial in October, which resulted in a hung jury. Chambers appeared to name "Eric" as her assailant, according to testimony from multiple first responders at Tellis' trial. Authorities interviewed a number of people named Eric and Derrick and found no viable leads.

Tellis' defense attorneys say inmate Jalen Caudle alleges that on April 5, Champion met with him to try to get him to testify that Tellis told him that Chambers had called him "Eric" as a pet name. Caudle testified before the judge that Champion told him that he could escalate and/or de-escalate charges and that if he didn't say Tellis had made that statement, that Caudle would go to prison for the rest of his life. Caudle is charged with capital murder in a DeSoto County case.

Palmer represents Caudle as well as Tellis.

Champion testified he did meet with Caudle after another inmate, Kenneth Vogt, told his attorney Jeff Odom that Caudle had said Tellis had told him Chambers' nickname for Tellis was "Eric."

Since it seemed Vogt was angling for a deal, Champion said he circumvented talking to him and went straight to Caudle, the source of the alleged information.

Champion said the moment he met Caudle, he told him who he was and that he, by the Mississippi Rules of Professional Conduct, could not speak to Caudle about his case. He said then that Caudle volunteered the "Eric" statement.

Caudle's testimony was that the district attorney threatened him and told him he would have to fire Palmer as his attorney and get a different one so he could testify.

According to jail records, Caudle then sent a communication to his father that this was a serious situation and he needed to speak to Palmer immediately. Palmer stressed that her client had to have been upset by the communications with the DA in order to react like that.

Palmer said she met with Caudle on April 10, and then again with co-counsel Peterson on April 18. The motions weren't filed until July 2, which was brought up by the prosecution.

That, Palmer said, was because she has several other cases in the 17th district and she wanted to make sure she could get all her details before she risked prejudicial treatment for her other clients.

After speaking to Palmer, Caudle sent a communication to his sister that said he believed he was going to "get a lawsuit out of this" and that he would "be home by July."

Caudle testified that what he meant was that Palmer had told him these were serious allegations against the DA's office and that his saying he'd be home by July was simply mirroring Palmer's confidence in his case.

Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale stated in closing arguments that the prosecution had just turned over discovery on some new evidence in the case. The discovery was turned over June 28, he said.

But as to Caudle's story, Champion said once he heard it, he knew it wasn't true. His main reason was that Tellis, he said, was an "experienced convict," and wouldn't just volunteer such evidence to a young kid he had just met while incarcerated.

One of the defense's hangups was that Champion had initiated contact with Caudle without Palmer's presence, which would be forbidden should he be talking about Caudle's case. But Champion told the court he looked at Caudle as a possible witness, and that he told him up front that he could not discuss Caudle's case with him.

Palmer argued that by simply being the district attorney, which can be intimidating, that in essence, Caudle felt as though Champion was discussing Caudle's case with him.

Champion testified that he consulted colleagues and the Mississippi Rules of Professional Conduct before he spoke with Caudle. He argued that since he was seeing Caudle as a witness, he was within his bounds since he did not discuss his case.

Most importantly, Champion said, he did not believe Caudle's story. He said the prosecution does not plan to use any part of it. He didn't tell Caudle he didn't believe him, he said. But, he asserted, if that had been true, it would have been huge for the prosecution. He stated that he wasn't going to risk his case on what appeared to be bad testimony.

Both sides of the case agreed that communications between the prosecution and the defense have been good if not absolutely amicable. But that's part of why the lack of communication caused the rift, they said.

Palmer and Peterson pointed to the fact Champion didn't consult them about Caudle's story and the meeting. Palmer said she wasn't sure she could trust the prosecution anymore.

Hale pointed out that perhaps Palmer or Peterson could have called Champion as well to ask about the meeting. He said all of their research into the situation that Palmer said had set her back in her other cases stemmed from the words of one person: Caudle.

Chatham said that he does not feel that the Circuit Court is the proper venue to decide if there was any prosecutorial misconduct, saying instead it should be brought up with the Mississippi Bar.

"I see no misconduct that would prejudice the case against Quinton Tellis," he said.

He then overruled the motion for the DA's office to recuse itself and the request for a continuance and sanctions against the prosecution.